


Death Sense

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-07-07 06:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15903141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: After his brush with death in the car accident, Emu can see ghosts.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a series of little ghost related drabbles since I'm gearing up for October

 

Hiiro was a man of logic and science. He had a solid set of laws that he knew kept the world turning, and if something didn’t fall under those rules, they didn’t matter. As they grew closer over the course of their internship, Emu was tempted to talk about his… bonds with the occult, but decided against it, considering Hiiro’s strong beliefs in science-based rationale. Emu knew that if only he could just convince Hiiro to believe in the things he couldn’t see he could help him.

Aside from his fervent belief in science, Hiiro also had chronic chest pains. Hiiro passed them off as just genetics since his mother’s side had a history of heart diseases. Emu, still concerned for his friend since Hiiro seemed on all accounts, perfectly healthy, pressed Director Kagami for answers. Hiiro was reluctant to share personal health details with Emu. He always got the sense that Hiiro refused to discuss it because he looked down on Emu as a doctor.

Sure, Emu just slid by with good enough grades to graduate and got queasy at the sight of blood, but he was still trying his best and slowly getting better at those things. Emu figured that maybe Hiiro's pride contributed as well, making him not want someone he saw as lesser telling him something he should be able to figure out himself. But in this case, Emu wouldn’t blame Hiiro at all for not being able to figure his particular problem out.

Haima was thrilled that Hiiro finally had a close friend that was concerned over his well-being. He was very open to divulging that the chest pains started up four years ago. Around the same time, Hiiro had a girlfriend that died. She caught a cold, but her immune system overproduced pyrogens, causing her internal body temperature to rise exponentially. The doctors treating her were confused at such a reaction and were trying to address the disease rather than her overactive immunity, and the fever eventually killed her.

Haima asked Emu to never tell Hiiro about it, but he thought that Hiiro’s chest pains might be related to her death somehow. As they talked it out, Emu almost burst out of his seat in excitement because Haima had basically figured it out. He was so eager to share everything that could possibly help Hiiro. But, Haima quickly retracted his statement after thinking it over and attributed it to Hiiro’s sudden obsession with eating pastries in mourning and the stress of her passing triggering his genetic conditions.

So how was Emu supposed to tell either of them that Hiiro probably, for all intents and purposes, was perfectly healthy? How could Emu even begin to describe to Hiiro that there was a girl in a white lace dress that shambled around after him everywhere he went in the hospital? And even if he could convince Hiiro of her presence how would he tell him that whenever he experienced chest pains, it was because she’d drive her hand into his chest and squeeze, mumbling something under her breath as she did.

Emu once saw her go until Hiiro was choking and on his knees. She might’ve killed him if Emu hadn’t been there and choked out a plead for her to stop. Her head whipped to the side to look at him at an unnatural angle. She stared at him for a little bit, and Emu met her eyes unflinchingly; he’d seen worse at this point. This seemed to trigger something in her, and she slowly rose, walking slowly and unsteadily down the hall until she was out of sight. There was no way Hiiro would ever listen to any of this. He so fervently believed in the logic presented before him there was no way Emu could even hope to convince him that his heart pains would go away if he just moved on from her death.

All Emu could do was stick close to Hiiro as much as he could while the girl maintained a close follow on both of them, hoarse whispers of “let me go, let me go, let me go” echoing in his ears as they walked the halls.


	2. Chapter 2

Emu managed to talk to the girl haunting Hiiro. He remembered the name Saki from his talks with Director Kagami. As she followed Hiiro to the break room one day, Emu whispered an apology before exaggeratedly tripping and taking her down to the floor with him. She twisted to look up at him in shock before he hauled her to her feet and quickly started dragging her by her arm away from Hiiro.

  
As he ran with her in tow, he took note that her skin felt like it was burning before she started dragging him down with more and more force. He gritted his teeth and soldiered on down the hall. The weight of her on his arm was becoming unbearable for his scrawny body. Her hands clung to his arm in an absolutely bruising grip and—wait. Hands?  
Emu turned to see her hair and dress being blown back as if she was caught in a ferocious wind storm. She had tucked her body down low as if trying to shield herself from the forces pushing her away, and her arms and legs were trembling as if she was exerting a huge effort just to stay in place.

“Saki?”

Her head turned up in a grotesque fashion. “I want… to leave…” She croaked out.

Emu’s brows knitted in confusion at the statement. “You don’t want to haunt Hiiro?”

She shook her head slowly. “He’s… guilty… too attached. I just want… rest… but he… keeps me here…”

And suddenly things started to click into place.

“He cursed himself? When you attack him, it's because he thinks he needs to atone for your death?”

Her hands started to slip from his arm as she nodded a little more frantically.

Emu felt his heart rate pick up as he started to hastily process this new information. He'd heard of unintentional curses before. Curses and spells were all about powerful intent, and sometimes people's emotions or thoughts could grow so out of hand that nearby ghosts or spirits of people they were fixated on started following them around to manifest punishment on themselves or others.

Saki's hand slipping further down his arm to his sweaty palm suddenly drew his attention back to her.

“Help him. Forgive—” Saki managed to get out before she was wrenched down the hall by some invisible force.

Emu was left standing there; hand outstretched for her in shock as he tried to process everything he learned.

He hadn’t seen a ghost attack someone without malice in a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the course of the next month, Emu pulled Saki away whenever he had the time to spare. During each of these brief sessions, they slowly figured out the limits of Hiiro’s self-induced curse and its effects on Saki.

She started out by explaining she already moved on after she died. Sure, she didn’t get to do nearly as many things as she would’ve liked, and sadly her first and only relationship felt very one-sided in retrospect; but she had no strong emotions towards these regrets and passed on relatively easily. The afterlife was pretty cool. She was already making friends and reuniting with relatives, so things were going well.

They also took a moment to awe at Hiiro’s emotional state. Something really messed up had to be happening in his brain to warrant a curse powerful enough to rip someone from the afterlife. After the quick admiration of his facial fortitude never really showing any of his emotional turmoil, the duo was more motivated to figure out a way to get Hiiro to move on. Feeling something that powerful and negative was probably crushing his soul.

The week and a half they spent talking about the afterlife, they also spent timing about how long Saki could maintain distance, before being snapped back to Hiiro’s side. They also employed a few different methods and noticed if Emu got a running start that was the best way to build some distance and give them longer to plan and figure things out. Sometimes they managed to keep Saki away for so long, Hiiro’s depressed mood would pass, and she would gently fade from existence back to the afterlife. While Emu was disappointed there wasn’t more time to talk with her if they waited Hiiro out, he was still happy for her and got a little weepy the first time he saw her relieved face as she disappeared.

Since Emu and Hiiro were going through internship together, Emu was able to keep a close eye on every time Saki was given the proverbial “yoink” into the human realm. He noticed that she appeared safe and sound every time like she was respawning in a video game. As Saki fought to escape the almost gravitational pull of Hiiro’s curse, she’d slowly get mangled and twisted. It turned Emu’s stomach a little, and he imagined that must be what it’s like to experience the crushing pressure of the ocean floor but in slow motion.

They also took the time to measure her range. She mainly had staying power in areas Hiiro frequented and associated with her dying here. Emu asked Hiiro to come with him on little walks during breaks, under the guise of learning the layout of the hospital better. Saki would get fuzzy and glowy, like an overexposed, unfocused photo in areas Hiiro was more unfamiliar with. And they actually managed to send her off when they took Hiiro to pediatrics.

Also, on days when the feeling of guilt followed Hiiro home, Emu carefully watched Saki and watched as she helplessly bumped up against the glass doors like a moth drawn to a lantern. He kept a close eye on her, and she didn’t fade away eventually, she just couldn’t leave the hospital. When Emu asked her about it the next day, she said she stayed like that until late that night. Based on their rough estimates they could assume she was around until Hiiro went to sleep that night.

An upside to this knowledge was that they actually had some leeway. The conditions of the curse could be much, much worse. Since Saki wasn’t personally attached to the mortal realm anymore, it was taking a lot of emotional energy to just bring her back. So it was highly likely things couldn’t get worse from here, but there was always that small percentage of a chance that Hiiro could spiral further.

They tried to figure out a plan on how to get Hiiro to open up about it, but all they could come up with based on their collective knowledge on him that it was going to take lots of time and careful planning. They could get Director Kagami to also be in on this, just express to him to try and get Hiiro to be more open with his emotions since Hiiro seemed to have the most respect for his father out of anyone.

Emu slowly started broaching the subject, asking Hiiro if anything was wrong when Saki was snapped into the room. Hiiro was indignant at first, firing back questions as to why Emu was so curious about his well-being. Emu would resolutely reply because they were friends. It always made Hiiro falter, and Saki would flicker in and out of existence as his emotions wavered. But he’d eventually get Hiiro to settle down and sigh exasperatedly (with a touch of fondness) after some back and forth.

After these conversations, Saki would flicker in and out of this plane of existence. She no longer looked mangled or weighed down. She would probably stick around for a while, but she could finally smile again in Hiiro’s presence. Emu felt his heart swell with his success in bringing back her smile.

When she could, she’d catch Emu’s eye over Hiiro’s shoulder with a starry eyed smile and whisper “Thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the main plot of the story is starting to get hinted at. And it's also where I can give a huge thank you to [Dove_Vanity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dove_Vanity) (I have no idea how to tag/@people on here so I hope this works) for letting me scream about "but what if ghosts?" and helped me figure out character and plot threads.

Emu needed to go out of town for a while, but he also needed someone to watch over all of the ghost friends he’d made over the years. Usually, Parad would help even if he couldn’t see ghosts, but now…

Anyways, Parad or no, Emu had to find a suitable replacement, and with Hiiro’s situation mostly figured out and Asuna covering for his friends in his usual haunts, he only really needed someone to check on the abandoned hospital. Which is why he had one of Parad’s rival-friends in tow as he headed towards the building.

Nico whistled at the sight of the decrepit building, Emu paused to turn back to her. “You’re really serious about this whole ghost thing, huh? I'm pretty sure this place is an urban legend. Would explain how they let it get this bad without tearing it down or anything.”

Emu restrained himself from rolling his eyes. “Yes, we’ve been over this, I’ve been able to see them for years.”

She fixed him with a skeptical look before pushing past him and marching straight through the front door. Emu shook his head and jogged after her. As he caught up to Nico, he heard her before he saw her. She was wandering around the hospital, generally making a ruckus and calling out, asking if there were any ghosts around.  
As someone who couldn't naturally sense ghosts or had a brush with death, she was totally oblivious to the ominous, camo-clad presence radiating annoyance and standing in the middle of the entrance hall. Emu watched helplessly as she passed through Taiga several times on her exploration of the handful of offices along the hallway.

“Hojo,” Taiga leveled him with a stern look. “Who is this?”

Emu’s response was cut off by a sudden “Whoa! This place is so cool! I’m surprised it’s been left like this, and they don’t run courage tests or a haunted house through here.” From Nico.

Emu sighed heavily and stood between them, taking note that a small crowd of ghosts had drawn to the end of the hall, whispering and wanting to check out the newcomer. “Nico,” he gestured to what looked like empty air to her. “This is Taiga, you’ll primarily be working with him while I’m gone.” Emu similarly looked at Taiga and gestured to Nico, “Taiga, this is Nico. She’s one of my brother’s friends, and she’ll be helping out instead of me for a little bit.”

Taiga’s eyebrows raised at the mention of Parad. “Hojo…” He said softly. “Did he—”

Emu abruptly nodded. “Yeah.” He tried not to wince at the waver and crack in his voice.

Taiga lowered his eyes respectfully. “I’m sorry to hear.”

Nico sensed the tense atmosphere and suddenly blurted, “So! You said you found a way for me to see ghosts yeah? When do I get to meet this guy?”

Her voice immediately grounded Emu in the moment again, and he smiled at Nico. “Oh yes! I figured this out with Asuna and Taiga! So, all you have to do is focus your energies on your third eye. It should be here,” he patted the middle of his forehead, “But it’s a little different for everyone, of course.”

“That sounds ridiculous,” Nico said flatly. “How am I supposed to see ghosts if I don’t even know how to ‘focus my energies’ in the first place? You never taught me that.”

“Well that’s why I’m gonna to teach you now—”

“Hojo, just drop the pleasantries and tell her to go cross-eyed!” Taiga barked.

Emu flinched then sighed, mumbling “There’s more to it than that if she’s gonna get good at this.” But, nonetheless gestured at Taiga’s face. “Go cross-eyed and focus here.

Nico blinked in disbelief. “Okay, now I know this is a joke. Who put you up to this?”

“Please just do it and trust me, there’re no functional cameras in here, and my phone is in my pocket, I’m not gonna take embarrassing photos of you with a weird expression, now can you please?” he gestured to Taiga’s face more insistently.

She gave him an exasperated “Fine.” And went cross-eyed.  
The first thing she saw was color, just an awful yellow color against a dark background. As she focused in on the colors, the image began to crisp up, and she suddenly yelped in distress and backed away a few steps.

Emu held his hands up placatingly. “I know it’s jarring at first, but we—”

“Are you trying to calm me down because you think the ghost scared me? No! That was the worst outfit I’ve ever seen in my entire life!” She yelled. “You seriously want me to take care of this disaster?”

Enraged, Taiga tried to smack the girl over the head, but his arm just ended up harmlessly whiffing through. He swung his arm wildly, flailing with all his might to get any sort of contact, but, nothing.  
Struggling not to despair at this potentially horrible choice and keep the peace, Emu put himself between them once again. “Taiga, please calm down. Nico, I’m glad this technique worked out for you, so now please try to get along.”

Taiga glared at her, and she stuck her tongue out at some middle distance a few inches to the left of him. He rolled his eyes then turned his gaze to Emu. He seemed to contemplate the intern for a few moments before sighing.

“I’ll try make this work. I’m not gonna be easy on her, but I don’t think she’s gonna do the same for me anyway.”

Emu nodded gratefully. “That’s all I can ask for.” Then he fixed Nico with a stern gaze and spoke with a tone he saved for rowdy 10-year-olds. “Nico, Taiga just said he’s gonna do his best to make this work. You won’t be able to hear him or any of the other spirits in this hospital, but you can see them, and they can slightly affect the world of the living if they have a strong enough spiritual presence. I suggest you either get good at reading lips or bring post its. Taiga is the strongest ghost here, so you’ll probably be doing most of your written communication with him. They’ll be able to hear you, so don’t worry about that part too much.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes but nodded in understanding.

“Okay good. You don’t need to do this part, but I usually help clean up around here if I have the time. Just trying to make it a happier place for the ghosts to be. Otherwise, I usually just check in on everyone and make sure they’re alright. Taiga will let you know if there’s anything that needs your help.” Emu concluded. “Sound easy enough?”

Nico actually, seriously contemplated this for a while, before meeting his gaze with a half-smile and nodding. “Roger that.”

“All right. That settles that.” Emu sighed in relief. “Now I’ll just give you a brief intro to everyone else, and you start officially tomorrow.”

Emu showed Nico around the facility, pointing out places that he’d tidied up and she could use the hospital as a study place or safe haven from school stresses. He also introduced her to all of the residents of the hospital, spending some extra time with ones he thought might get along with her well. Truth be told, he was still hesitant about all this since she’d really been close to Parad. When he propositioned her, she considered him carefully before stating he was always nice enough to her so she could do him a solid for a couple weeks. He briefly wondered if it was out of pity or some sense of obligation to Parad.

Nico abruptly snapped him out of his thoughts by jabbing her elbow into his ribs. “Hey, what’s up with those guys?” She gestured with a thumb to a small cluster of ghosts.

They were extremely transparent, more than any others in the building. They stood incredibly still and had all settled into one pose as if frozen in time, blankly staring out into the distance.

“They’re close to leaving this plane of existence.” Emu said somberly. “Usually a ghost is kept here by strong feelings and the nature of the emotions determines their form. But sometimes ghosts slowly grow apathetic, forget why they were here and pass over into somewhere else.”

“Somewhere else?” Nico continued staring at them with apprehension.

Emu shrugged. “Some people say purgatory, others say wherever they were initially supposed to go when they died, and some say that they just wander an endless void because they’ve forgotten who they are so they have no place in heaven or hell.”

Nico continued to watch them, her brow furrowed in thought. “Where do you think they go?”

“I like to think they go to somewhere they can finally rest peacefully and slowly find themselves again.” Emu watched her expression carefully.

Her expression turned soft and there was a deep-set sadness he couldn’t really understand but felt radiate off her in waves. She sighed and nodded.

“Sounds nice.” And she turned away.

Emu took that as a cue to get out of here soon, and made rounds to say goodbye and be kind to Nico to everyone and walked her home.

When he got her to her apartments, he waved and began leaving, but she called out to him.

“I was gonna blow this off and just kinda drop by, say hi and bye and leave every day. But... after seeing everyone today, I think this might be good for me. Help me find some closure on something. So I guess, uh, well. I’m bad at this and, ugh…” her voice lowered to a mumble. “Thanks. For, y’know, asking me to do this.”

Emu felt his heart inexplicably swell. He fought the urge to intensely shake Nico’s hand or pull her into a tight hug since she’d probably throw him to the ground if he tried. Instead, he settled for a huge smile and nodded.

“You’re welcome. I’m glad that this might help you too.”

“Okay, okay, don’t go getting all sappy on me. Get out of here, you’ve got a vacation to attend to.” She started shoving him away and retreating up the stairs to her family’s apartment.

“It’s a leave, not a vacation!” He protested.

She leaned over the railing and called down. “You don’t have to go to work, and you’re going out of the city, that’s a vacation if I ever heard of one!” And then she scrambled up and in the door before he could argue.

He stared after her indignantly for a few moments, but the feeling quickly passed, and he shook his head, smiling.

This just might work out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gave me a lot of trouble and became over 3,000 words of Emu needs sleep and a hug. Not entirely happy with it since it didn't come out the way I intended, but I think it works for what I want to do.

Everything seemed fine at first. Emu had a little bit of a rocky start, getting up late and almost missing his train, but everything after that went pretty well. It was smooth, methodical, he didn’t really have to think about things, letting his mind wander and take in the sights and sounds around him. There was an anxious buzzing in his skull but it gradually started to fade the further he got from Tokyo. As he got off the first train, he got onto the next, then the next and he was able to lose himself in focusing on the rides and walking between stations. It was seemingly endless transfers from train to train to bus until, three hours later, he’d made it onto this final bus to his destination. But the first sign that this was the worst possible vacation destination reared its ugly head as the bus approached the stop before his destination.

Emu almost felt calm, all of the travel wearing him out so he didn’t have to reflect on the things that happened this year. He was just about to relax, but the bus hit a bump in the road, at the same time, the spiritual energy around him changed so suddenly and violently it felt like he’d been slammed face first into the ground. He’d jostled the person sitting next to him, but they just grumbled in their sleep a little and leaned against the window harder.

Adrenaline coursed through his system and he felt his chest and throat constricting, but he fought it, trying to keep his head clear and his eyes out for what could’ve caused the disturbance. As they continued driving along the shore, he felt a sudden chill roll over his skin, raising goosebumps all along his back and arms. He grimaced against the sensation, trying to ignore it as he leaned over his sleeping neighbor to look out the window. It was hard to spot but when he saw it, he felt his forehead and chest prickle with another crawling sensation and swallowed hard. There was a pair of shoes left on the beach. A suicide.

Emu sat back down shakily, clutching his backpack tight. He breathed deeply, trying to ignore the lump in his throat and the premonition burning the front of his skull that his week of leave was going to go awfully. There was almost no doubt that the person who committed suicide would be returning as a ghost, and all of the spirits and other supernatural elements in the area would be in a state of chaos defending their territories and figuring out how to settle around this new soul. This area must’ve been saturated with the supernatural for Emu to be this affected by their tension.

He was so rattled by the energy of the area he almost missed his stop. After disembarking, he collapsed in the grass for a little bit, trying to catch his breath. As he came down from the adrenaline high and started to acclimate to the oppressive atmosphere in the area, he noticed a raspy breathing above him. His focus honed down to tunnel vision of the road in front of him as he felt his heart pound against his ribs again. Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a few deep breaths to steel himself before sitting up and turning to the source of the noise.

Emu blinked curiously as he came nose to nose with a small goblin-like demon perched like a cat on the bus stop bench. They were about the size of a small child, an unhealthy pale, almost lavender color, with spindly limbs, swimming in a filthy, oversized yukata. Emu gazed nervously into their sunken in eyes through stringy, messy hair. They looked at him with an open-mouthed smile, revealing hints of pointed teeth. He noticed they weren’t breathing heavily anymore, and relaxed a little, letting out a sigh. A raspy sigh echoed him and he let out a surprised chuckle.

Quickly glancing around and seeing no one for the moment, he breathed exaggeratedly for a bit and the little goblin copied him in their own rasping way, their little grin growing as they went on. Emu felt himself smile for the first time that day and laughed a little before getting up to leave. It giggled and jumped off the bench, running across the road and disappearing into the tall grass. Feeling a little better, he hitched his backpack over his shoulders and started on the rest of the walk to his hotel. The little goblin seemed nice, making Emu hope that he was wrong about the hostile supernatural environment.

When he finally arrived, he tried as hard as he could to keep his eye from twitching. There were large crowds of spirits milling around the building, fights breaking out here and there. And from what he could see of the inside, it was just as packed. This place was as bad as Tokyo. Emu knew there were a lot of spirits here, but he was expecting it to be spread out, not solely in the hotel he was planning to spend a weekend of minimal supernatural encounters at.

With a sigh, he trudged into the hotel, desperately hoping someone would make a Foursquare equivalent for haunt tracking soon. As he checked in, most of the spirits bustled past or through him, sending all kinds of uncomfortable feelings slithering over his skin. A few keener spirits noticed the extra eye on his forehead before he could hide it and they hissed at him. He was sure that he’d made a bad impression with the man at the front desk from the fake smiles he’d been giving out of nervousness and berated himself for not keeping it together as he made his way to the elevators.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally made it up to his room. He smiled relievedly at the prospect of just collapsing on the bed, opened the door… And almost immediately backed out again.

There was a man in his room. Emu realized there must’ve been a mistake at the front desk and began to apologize. The words died in his throat when the other man noticed he wasn’t alone and turned fully to look at the intruder. The other half of his head was gored and dripping blood all over the shoulder and front of his aloha shirt. Emu’s thoughts briefly flashed back to the surgery he and Hiiro assisted with last month. The patient was in an accident, slammed against their window hard enough to break skin by the impact of the crash. He shook the thoughts off and entered the room, letting the door close quietly behind him.

“So…” He grimaced. “I wasn’t really expecting to have a roommate.”

“You could always ask for another room. They already know this one’s haunted.” The ghost shrugged, returning to the book he was reading.

Emu glanced down at the chair he was lounging across, noting that his blood seemed to just, dissipate if it left his body. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about blood clean up like some of the other spirits he’d worked with. A little tension left his chest as he shrugged, then threw himself across the bed letting out a thankful groan, relishing in the feel of sinking into the mattress.

“I’m a medical intern. I’ve seen much worse than you on the job.” Emu mumbled then settled into a more comfortable position.

“Huh.” The ghost mumbles.

Something about his tone catches Emu’s attention, but he’s too tired to focus on it. He feels the ghost’s gaze on him too, but ignores it in favor of rest. There’s a moment of silence, but it’s soon punctuated by the soft sounds of page turning.

He tried to sleep for a few minutes but something kept bothering him at the back of his mind. With a heavy sigh he tried to angle himself to see the ghost better, but gave up and just spoke loudly.

“Since we’ll be staying together for the week, can I get your name?”

The ghost blinked in surprise and turned to catch his eyes. After a moment of consideration, he let out a small huff and smiled.

“Kiriya. How ‘bout you?”

It was Emu’s turn to be thrown off. He wasn’t expecting such a level of casualness but might be for the best to roll with it.

“’M Emu. Nice to meet you Kiriya-san.”

There was another amused huff and they returned to their comfortable silence. Emu smiled to himself, thinking he’d finally caught a break.

Just as he was just drifting off to sleep, fate decided to give him one last “fuck you” for the day.

Something slammed into him at just that moment, sending him flying. Whatever knocked into him also gave him a powerful spiritual shove. He swore he could feel his soul leave his body for a moment, trying to make room for something else. Something way bigger than his body probably had room for.

When he came back to himself, Emu felt a sharp pain wracking his body and rolled against the foot of the chair, distantly hearing a “—the fuck” from Kiriya. There was a cacophony of voices arguing in his head, making it spin and his vision blur. There was a sharp pressure directly behind his eyes and crushing against his skull. His body felt like it was ready to be torn apart at the seams and he writhed against the floor, trying to find, something, any possible angle that would make the tightness of his skin and muscles relax to something more bearable.

Just when Emu thought he might die, the pressure in his brain faded away and his body relaxed into a heap on the floor. He just lay there for a few moments, the echoes of the voices continuing to argue somewhere in the background of his mind. As he started to pick himself up off the floor after that, rather terrifying, experience he noticed a residual pain throbbing in his chest. He’d have to check that out once he could get up.

It took him a few more seconds to process, but he realized that the voices weren’t just his brain trying to process the situation, they were still hanging around, and now the ghost had joined the din. He looked up slowly and immediately fell onto his ass in shock at four… (questionably?) demons, standing around and yelling at each other, and Kiriya had gotten in the midst of them, trying to break them up.

“Um… Excuse me?” He weakly called out to them.

The group of spirits continued to argue as Emu shakily got to his feet.

“Um… Hey!”

All eyes in the room turned to Emu and he grimaced at the array of spirits in front of him. The demons in an array of bright colors, red, blue, yellow and purple; the red one had his roommate in a chokehold, the purple one hanging off the blue and yellow ones’ shoulders as the two tried to pry the ghost and red demon apart.

Emu felt his momentary confidence wane under everyone’s gazes. “What is going on here?” He asked meekly.

“We’re looking for our contract holder, and  _senpai_  over here,” The blue one hit the red one on the shoulder a few times. “Thought you were him.”

The red one growled and unconsciously tightened his chokehold, startling a noise from Kiriya as he slapped at the arm across his throat.

“Cont... Contract holder? Who are you guys?” Emu eyed his ghost roommate worriedly.

He might experience temporary pain, but it’s not like he could die again from it; still didn’t relieve any of Emu’s worries. Thankfully the yellow guy managed to shake the red one off Kiriya and he stumbled away, collapsing back into his chair.

“Contract’s not your business,” The blue one waved dismissively at Emu, “But we can at least introduce ourselves. Right, senpai?” He said pointedly.

The red one growled again, and Emu worried that he’d start another fight. He rolled his head in an exasperated way, turning away from the group for a moment. Right as Emu opened his mouth to insist they could just go, he suddenly slammed his foot up on the bed, gesturing to himself with a thumb dramatically.

“I’m a climax from start to finish, Momotaros!” He proclaimed.

The other three’s expressions seemed incapable of changing, but they practically radiated various forms of “done.”

The blue one leaned into Emu and whispered. “Sorry, he’s always been an idiot, but it’s gotten worse since we lost Ryoutaro. He’s hopeless without him, but thinks he’s gotta cover it up with...” He made a vague gesture at all of Momotaros and Emu nodded in tired understanding. “I’m Urataros, by the way.”

“Hey, hey! What are you whispering about?” The purple one suddenly shoved himself in between them.

Urataros sighed, pulling him out of Emu’s personal space. “This one is Ryuuta.” The yellow one moved in too, arms crossed and looming over them all. Emu swallowed hard at the imposing presence. “And this is Kin-chan.” Urataros placed a hand on his arm gently.

Emu waved at them awkwardly, but was suddenly hit by another dizzy spell, stumbling back towards the wall. The big one, “Kin-chan” grabbed onto his arm, nearly pulling it from its socket before setting him upright.

“You okay?” He asked gruffly.

“Yeah, just, can you get me to the bathroom?” Emu leaned into his solid grip, head still spinning.

Kin grunted in agreement and hefted Emu over his shoulder, not doing anything to help his vertigo. Fortunately, it’s a short walk over to the bathroom. Kin sets him down on the toilet cover, hovering in the doorway.

Emu struggled to manage a smile. “I’ll be okay, thanks.”

He got a curt nod in response and Kin left, almost tearing the door off its hinges as he slid it closed. Emu stumbled his way to the sink, splashing cool water over his face to try and soothe the pain in his head. As the aches finally subsided, he leaned on the sink heavily. He stared at his reflection in the mirror for a little, drenched bangs hanging low over his eyes.

After a few deep breaths, he used his hand to brush his bangs back. In his reflection, three eyes blinked back at him. He poked at the forehead eye a little, and while the lids fluttered like it was worried about pain, his finger just felt regular skin upon contact. It was bloodshot and teary. He frowned as it still ached from the strain of being forcibly opened by the entry of four demons into his body. It’d probably be back to normal after the sleep he desperately craved. He let go of his mental hold on that eye, and it closed, fading from his forehead.

With a little sigh, he leaned back, letting his sopping wet bangs fall over his forehead again. He pulled down his shirt collar to reveal his surgery scar from the traffic accident. At the very top of the scar was his original third eye, placed vertically, blinking up at him. It was in worse shape than the eye on his forehead, constantly blinking away tears and when it managed to open for a just a moment, the iris seemed to wobble in place, straining to focus on him. He covered it up with a hand, urging it shut.

He tried to pull his collar down more, but the shirt wouldn’t stretch anymore. After an apprehensive breath, he drew the hem up his body. The surgery scar started a few centimeters below his collarbones, ending about a thumb’s length above his bellybutton. There was the third eye, closed and resting at the top of it, and just below it, a little slit was starting to open up.

It ached the worst and what was visible of the sclera was completely bloodshot. He thought back to when the first eye opened up and rubbed the skin around the scar in a soothing fashion. It helped ease the pain a little, and he wasn’t sure how that worked, but it’s what he did for the new eyes since he was young. While they couldn’t experience physical pain, spiritual pain was an entirely different story, and that possession had put him through the wringer. He needed rest, and soon.

Dropping his shirt back down, Emu gripped the sink and let out a harsh breath, trying to hold back tears. All he wanted was a vacation away from all this supernatural shit after what he’d been through, but the universe couldn’t even give him that. He slipped down to the tiled floor, trying to keep his sobs quiet, not wanting to show any of this to the spirits around. All four and a half of his eyes blurred with tears, and he’d never felt so happy to be unable to see.

He stayed there for what felt like hours, finally letting out months and months of built up emotions masked by fake smiles and ‘I’m fine’s. At some point, he stopped caring if the ghostly intruders could hear him and let out shuddering sobs, curled up on the floor with his face buried in his arms.

Finally, he drew in a shaky breath and his crying started to slow down to little hiccups and ragged breathing. He laid there, just breathing, completely void of any feelings or thoughts. Slowly, he let himself come back to reality, feeling even more drained than when he got here, but also like a small weight lifted off him. He managed to use the sink to help hoist himself up. After washing his face from tears and getting rid of as much of the swelling around his eyes as he could, he looked at his reflection again. He was an absolute mess, but it was the closest he’d ever looked to a normal person since his accident. With the first genuine smile he’d felt in a while he moved towards the door.

He came out of the bathroom and jolted a little to see Kiriya waiting outside for him. The ghost was a little blurry since he’d let his forehead eye rest for the night and the two eyes on his chest were still wrecked.

“They helped you unpack, while you were in there.” Kiriya chuckled, jerking a thumb towards the main room.

Emu looked over his shoulder and saw Ryuuta bouncing around between the chair and the bed, waving his sleep clothes around as Momotaros chased after, yelling. Urataros and Kin hovered around the table, actually folding his clothes neatly and placing them in the drawers.

“Huh, that’s helpful of them.” Emu blinked. “Did… You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”

He shrugged. “Might’ve done a little bit of suggesting that they could do something for you because of how they were a major inconvenience, to put it lightly. No big deal.”

“Kiriya-san…”

“Don’t mention it.” He lightly grabbed onto Emu’s shoulders and guided him to the bed.

Emu took a look out the window and noticed it was very late at night. Kiriya sat him down and headed over to the rowdy demons. They all huddled in the corner, whispering something. He watched them curiously, tilting his head, but the exhaustion from travelling, possession and emptying out all his emotions finally caught up, and he collapsed onto the soft mattress. The sheets and blankets were disheveled from where Ryuuta had been jumping and Emu fell asleep, completely tangled in them.


End file.
